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African American Children’s Depressive Symptoms: The Prospective Effects of Neighborhood Disorder, Stressful Life Events, and Parenting

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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

The prospective effects of observed neighborhood disorder, stressful life events, and parents’ engagement in inductive reasoning on adolescents’ depressive symptoms were examined using data collected from 777 African American families. Multilevel analyses revealed that stressful life events experienced at age 11 predicted depressive symptoms at age 13. Furthermore, a significant interaction between neighborhood disorder and parents’ engagement in inductive reasoning was found, indicating that parental use of inductive reasoning was a protective factor for depressive symptoms particularly for youths living in highly disordered neighborhoods. The importance of examining correlates of depressive symptoms from a contextual framework, focusing on individuals, families, and neighborhood contexts, is emphasized.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health through funding for the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research (MH48165) at Iowa State University. Additional funding for the research center and for this project was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station (Project #3320). Writing of this manuscript was also supported by an Academic Senate Research Grant from UC Davis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 51 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Misaki N. Natsuaki & Xiaojia Ge

  2. University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Gene H. Brody & Ronald L. Simons

  3. Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Frederick X. Gibbons & Carolyn E. Cutrona

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  1. Misaki N. Natsuaki
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  2. Xiaojia Ge
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  3. Gene H. Brody
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  6. Carolyn E. Cutrona
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Correspondence to Misaki N. Natsuaki.

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Natsuaki, M.N., Ge, X., Brody, G.H. et al. African American Children’s Depressive Symptoms: The Prospective Effects of Neighborhood Disorder, Stressful Life Events, and Parenting. Am J Community Psychol 39, 163–176 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9092-5

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